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I am at Shandong University, China, majoring in Applied Linguistics. Now I am doing research into reader awareness for my thesis.

I noticed that students, such as the Chinese students for example, lack reader awarenss in writing, which can cause inefficiency in writing. I found that many Chinese scholars mainly focused on the effect of reader awareness; however, I want to do something from another aspect, that is: try to study the perception of reader awareness of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, and are there any differences between reader awareness in Chinese and English writing? If yes, what are they? What causes the differences?

So, these two are my major research questions. In fact, I hope to make a contrast between Chinese students and English native speakers, then I aim to see whether different culture (I mean the thinking patterns which are influenced by different cultures, e.g. Chinese people are influenced by Confucianism) can influence and affect people's rhetoric method and then affect people's writing.

I want to adopt an open-ended questionnaire, but I do not know how to ask appropriate questions, and I wonder if there is similar research done by other linguists before. I have this initial idea, but I do not know which point to go into first and what kind of methodology is good and effective. Also, what are the latest findings in the field of "reader/audience awareness" in writing? I would greatly appreciate any help.